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Hi. I’m Isabel, I cook and scribble. I make a lot of food and do a lot of writing, and Bread & Courage is what I have to show for it. It started as a simple food blog called TASTE but evolved into something more—a place where I express my love of food, community and the environment. Thanks for spending some time here—and be in touch!

parsley

Jan 31, 2012

It’s a bit late to begin writing about winter, but I have been hibernating. Still and quiet, but whirling with ideas. Many come up when I sleep.This morning I got up quite early and did some stretching and had some coffee and my sleepy thoughts took shape. The best thought was that I need to write […]

Aug 26, 2011

Zucchini persists, a happy constant. Life is changing a lot–unlike my friends in Texas, who have endured nearly three months of 100+ temperatures, I can feel the fall moving into North Country. It starts with a subtle gust of cooler wind, whirling at my feet. I hear a few more crows cry, and the smell […]

Jul 10, 2011

Christopher has made kafta a few times, and in different kitchens. The magical outcome is no happy accident. (Though I never doubted him.) I am impressed though, because ‘exotic’ cuisines evade me: my curries are a tad flat, my sushi rolls aren’t tight and I can’t get comfortable with fish sauce to cook Thai–although that […]

Dec 27, 2010

Green on Greens will teach you to do incredible things with vegetables, one of which involves stuffing a chicken with a celery root… Imagine! I haven’t done it yet, but I will let you know when I do. Quite a few pages are dogeared with irreparable creases, but none is more worn than the page […]

Oct 10, 2010

I just finished licking all ten of my fingers and am feeling like Sir Kay from The Sword and the Stone. For some reason, one of my most vivid childhood memories involves watching him take down a drumstick in a single lippy bite… and wincing in embarrassed self-recognition. I may have been disgusted then, but […]

Jul 30, 2010

This blog post is an apology, and an attempt to explain that I really can cook a main dish. I am so sorry that I only ever post about salads, sides and baked goods. You must think I have a really, really strange diet. Although the assumption is not entirely untrue, I must tell you […]

May 19, 2010

Christopher and I like to cook on Fridays: cozy up to the stove, cool ourselves down with a few glasses of wine, and then dance in the middle of the living room when all’s said and done. It’s a pretty great way to date—and it shaves a lot of time off primping, waiting for tables, […]

Mar 18, 2010

I realize that many people will not give this post much attention and that makes me sad. I feel that cauliflower is much maligned—or at least wildly underappreciated. How is it that such a beautiful thing can be considered so unglamorous? Is it because they look a little bit wan? I’ve thought that myself, I […]

Mar 08, 2010

Our parsley has become a rather intimidating shrub. I go out to the garden every day and trim it back, but its leaves only seem to multiply, bushier by the day. Before this year, I had only ever seen parsley in little diminutive stems, often contained by tiny terra cotta pots. I felt bad plucking […]

Dec 14, 2009

It’s not really fair for me to have to write about shrimp and chorizo stew right now. I’ve just bent backwards, twisted my innards in a hundred directions, fallen forward, lifted halfway and generally wrung out my body and all of its angles. And why does all of this movement make a soup so unfair? […]